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BUDGET POSTS HUF 244 BN SURPLUS IN JAN

Hungary’s cash-flow-based budget, excluding local councils, showed a 244 billion forint (EUR 764.5m) surplus in January, the finance minister said. “We’re seeing one of those rare occasions of the past 20 years when advance payouts have left a surplus, rather than a deficit, in the budget,” Mihály Varga told current affairs channel M1, commenting on the data. The deficit target for the full year is 998.4 billion forints.

Varga said tax revenues in January were 200 billion forints higher than in the same month a year ago. Hungary received transfers of more than 200 billion forints from the European Union, and the government has made some 90 billion forints’ worth of payments for EU projects, he said. The minister said the government’s 1.8%-of-GDP deficit target for the full year, calculated according to EU accounting rules, was achievable.